Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc.

I am Gina Depaling, the company's investor relations officer. Thank you for joining us today to review RHI's unaudited results covering the third quarter and nine months of this year. The panelists for this call are our president and CEO, Ms. Rubina Gokongwefe, our CFO, Ms. Maylene Casiban, the managing director of the supermarket business, Stanley Koff, The general manager of DIY and Feds, Mr. Ted Sogono. The group general manager of Robinsons Department Store and Poisseras, Ms. Selena Chua. The general manager of our CVS business, Suresh Ramalingam. The group general manager of the appliance segment, Mr. Joby Santos. The general manager of Go-Kart, Ms. Edna Belleza. and Senior Advisor for Corporate Finance and Strategy of the Gokongwei Group, Mr. BJ Sebastian. This presentation will cover the company's financial performance in three, two, and nine months of this year. and some recent company developments. A brief question and answer session will follow after the formal presentations. As a reminder, for the Q&A portion, please use the Q&A function of your Zoom dashboard to type in your questions, or you may raise your hand so we can unmute you. We would appreciate if you will limit your questions to a maximum of three so we can accommodate as many participants as possible. you may queue back in to the Q&A for additional questions. If you have any concerns regarding the sound quality of the call, please message Angelo Torres or the RHI core plan. With that, I'll turn it over to our President and CEO, Ms. Regina Boconguite.

Good afternoon. Here are the highlights of our consolidated results for the third quarter of 2022. Consolidated net sales grew by 19.3% to 44.7 billion. Blended same-store sales growth of 15.1%. E-commerce sales accounted for 3.2% of total sales. 120-bits gross margin expansion to 24%. 50-bits 50 bps EBITDA margin improvement to 9.1%. Net income attributable to equity holders of the parent company rose by 60.8% to 1.7 billion pesos, while EPS increased faster by 66% to 1.13 pesos. Store portfolio of 2,261 stores and 2,111 PGP franchise branches nationwide. Robinson's retail store counts to the 2,261 as of September 30, composed of 311 supermarkets, 957 drugstores, 219 DIY stores, 50 department stores, 433 convenience stores, and 291 specialty stores. We also have 2,111 franchise stores of TGP. Serving as fulfillment centers for our store network, our e-commerce operations is complementary to our store network. GoCart, our very own e-commerce site, currently has 14 banners in the platform. RRHI continued its strong performance, posting net sales growth of 19.3% in the third quarter and 16.7% in the nine months to 44.7 billion and 127.1 billion respectively, with both surpassing pre-pandemic levels. Most formats contributed double-digit growth rates in the third quarter and the nine months. Improved sales were driven by 15.1% and 11.8% SSSG in the third quarter and nine months, respectively. In turn, SSSG was largely underpinned by better mobility, revenge travel, back-to-school trends, and return to on-site work, albeit hybrid arrangements. Various price adjustments also contributed to revenue growth. Top-line growth in the third quarter and nine months was supported by double-digit blended SSSG. Gross margin expanded by 120 dips year-on-year in the third quarter to 24%, mainly attributable to better product mix. This led to year-to-date gross margin improvement of 80 dips to 23.7%. Meanwhile, EBIT increased by 53.5% and 54.9% respectively to 2.3 billion and 5.9 billion in the third quarter and nine months. EBIT was driven by strong SSSG GPM expansion and operating efficiencies. Net income attributable to parents increased by 60.8% in the third quarter to 1.7 billion, ending the nine-month period at 4.4 billion, up 62.7%. The surge in profitability is attributed to the strong operating performance, forex gains, and higher dividend income. Coupled with our share buyback program, earnings per share increased at a faster clip by 66% to 1.13 pesos per share in the third quarter and 68.2% to 2.95 pesos per share in the nine months. Meanwhile, core earnings, which exclude interest income from bonds, forex, equity and net earnings of associates and others, came in at 1.4 billion in the third quarter, up 91.4% and 3.6 billion in the nine months, higher by 72.6%. The next speaker will be Stanley Ko, Managing Director of the supermarket segment.

Thank you, Ms. Rubina. The supermarket segment posted net sales of 25.5 billion in the third quarter of 2022, This is 16.8% higher versus the same period last year. Same-store sales growth in the third quarter came in at 9.2%, which is a turnaround from a negative 3.7% within the same period of last year. This is the back of higher transaction count, which is more than compensated for lower basket sizes. A better supply chain situation also helped drive same-store sales growth. Meanwhile, year to date 2022 net sales ended at 72.2 billion up by 12.8% year on year with the same store sales growth coming in at 6.1% versus a negative 11.2% last year. Gross profit margin increased to 22.2% in the third quarter from 21.6% last year. This brought year-to-date gross margin to 21.8%, up by 60 bps year-on-year. This is attributable to better pricing, increasing indent penetration, protection buys, assortment alignment, and discontinuation of bulk sales. EBITDA margins, however, eased from 8.9% in 3Q last year to 8.7% in 3Q this year. The improvement in gross margins was offset by additional expenses from new stores and the new DC, which we are preparing for future expansion of stores in Northern Luzon. As of the end of September 2022, there are 145 Robeson Supermarket, 100 Robeson Easy Mart, 16 Shopwise, 35 The Marketplace, and 15 No Brand stores for a total of 311 stores. Turning you over to Mylene for the drugstore segment.